Rockin' in the office

The band Absentee are in the studio with Alex Turner. They have worked with plenty of Britain's biggest acts, but you don't hear much about it. They tend not to be credited on the sleeves of the resulting albums or play on the tours of the bands who rehearse with them. That's not the result of false modesty; it's just the way it is. Because when Absentee go to work in the studio, that's actually what they do: they work there.

Singer/guitarist Dan Michaelson is the bookkeeper and administrator at the Premises, the east London studio-and-cafe complex where Turner is today running through his paces with the Last Shadow Puppets. Keyboard player Melinda Bronstein is the receptionist; bassist Laurie Earle is a studio technician; and guitarist Babak Ganjei pops in to help out when needed. The drummer, Che Albrighton, doesn't work there any more, but he was the studio manager for several years. "If it wasn't for this place, I wouldn't know them," Albrighton says of his bandmates.

"They're gold as gold, the lot of them," says the Premises' owner, Viv Broughton, about Absentee. He likes to employ people in bands, he explains, "because musicians understand musicians. Musicians aren't quite so good at running the cafe side of things - in fact, when I let them do it they always made a loss - but it makes complete sense for the studio. Absentee are the right sort of people, and of course the right sort of band: they're not trying to be mainstream or posey, they're quirky. They're a very Premises band, and our people tend to be fans of things that are fairly leftfield."

Unsurprisingly, Absentee recorded their new album, Victory Shorts, here. It's a sharp, confident record that recalls Pavement at their most beguiling and Lou Reed at his least irritating.

"We are fortunate to have access to the people and the studio space here - it's given us time to develop, without forcing it," Michaelson growls (his singing voice is pitched so low there is a risk it might cause tectonic plates to shift). "I think it's because we've made a couple of records already, so we know how to do it properly, and we've got this place to record and rehearse in, so we can take time over it. And we've got a clearer idea why we're doing this music. We've been able to take the songs apart and look at them more carefully before we record them."

Do they seek advice or guest appearances from the rather better-known musicians who come to the Premises? "If Nick Cave walks in, I'm not about to tell him I'm in a band," Michaelson says. "He'd probably laugh at me." Does Nick Cave just walk in? "He did. Nick Cave once asked me for a cigarette, so I gave him a cigarette. He hasn't mentioned it since."

It should be pointed out that Michaelson doesn't keep his band secret from everyone; they have toured with the Magic Numbers (whose Romeo Stodart used to play bass in Absentee), Ed Harcourt, Brakes, Bloc Party and even my own happening beat combo, the Broken Family Band.

Has working at the Premises been good preparation for dealing with rock-star behaviour ? "Pete Doherty arrived for a rehearsal with two cats in travel cases and a couple of mice in his jacket pocket," Michaelson says. "He left without the mice, which were eventually found nesting in my piano." And was he a crack-addled maniac? "Er, no. He's still one of the politest people to have walked into the studio."

On the way out of the studio, I ask Viv Broughton if he hopes Victory Shorts will bring Absentee success. "I'd like them to do well," he says, carefully. "But not too well - otherwise I'd lose half my staff."